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Alone on a bench, a young Taiyaki vendor slept. The orphan had been through a lot with the Tsukuba lab incident. The military had tried to cover it up, trying to try him into believing it was all a dream, but Akira and the other orphans knew it was real.
The military managed to put everything back to normal except one important detail: Matsu. Even with all the power the military held, nothing could bring Lawless back. The man may have been the one to kill his dad, and Akira sure as hell didn’t forgive him, but he was still family to him. He’d done so much for the orphanage, so much to save his town from the liquifacted humans, only to not only his death but his entire existence covered up. Akira wouldn’t forget about him, neither would the other orphans or Taeko, who all missed him dearly. After his death, a ceremony was held by Taeko to commemorate their fallen friend, but the psychokinetic didn’t attend. He knew that the former captain of the crusaders wouldn’t want all these formalities.
Speaking of the crusaders, they were still around, but thankfully no longer abducting people. Things were starting to calm down for him and his found family, but they were all still in mourning. Akira tried his best to move on for Matsu, but he found it to be quite impossible.
He despised the Tsukuba lab, which was somehow still up and running. Rumor had it that they were working on AI based mechs rather than psychokinetic based, unlike their previous project. The new project was run by Yoshiyuki Chiyo, a young woman who strived for success and a fascination with Dr. Tobei’s work, specifically the Steel Titan. She even had a nonfunctional mini-model of it in her office. She believed however that his work could be improved if the mech had its own soul, rather than someone else’s.
Akira always felt a pain in his gut whenever Watanabe mentioned his father. The kid was too young to know the truth, yet his false sense of hope made the teen wish that there was a way to save the soul trapped in the Combat Unit W1.
Things were getting better for Kaori though. She seemed to be getting less sick and was now able to play with the other children, but she much prefered to spend her time with Tarokichi. The turtle seemed to be doing good for her.
Akira got up from his bench with a sigh, ready to work his lonely shift at the park. About an hour passed by with no customers when he heard a familiar voice at the Taiyaki stand that made his heart stop.
“Hey kid, serve me some of that, wouldya?”